MORE FRANKLIN RICHARDS

Marvel Comics editor-in-chief Joe Quesada said last weekend at Wizard World Boston that there would be more Franklin Richards: Son of a Genius stories, and on Friday Marvel announced its plans.

Following a sellout of Fantastic Four Presents Franklin Richards: Son of a Genius at Diamond, Marvel announced future back-up stories by Mark Sumerak and Chris Eliopoulos.

Look for more Franklin in the Spider-Man Halloween Ashcan, available through Diamond Comics. Then in December, X-Men #180 and Fantastic Four Special 2005 will feature all-new Franklin stories, finding the son of Mr. Fantastic and the Invisible Woman getting himself into even more
trouble alongside his robotic sidekick/nanny H.E.R.B.I.E.

David Gabriel, Marvel's director of sales, noted "that these Franklin backup stories, similar to the back up
tales in Amazing Fantasy and the upcoming Ultimate Vision story in the
Ultimate books, are extra content added to these titles. We are not
cutting the regular story pages, and in most cases tossing out ad space.
So fans get extra story at no extra cost, and at no shortening of the
main title's story."

"Wow! Talk about the little comic that could!" Sumerak said. "Who'd have thought that we'd go from back-up strips in Power Pack to a sell-out one-shot? Congrats to the tiniest member of the FF family for finally getting some time to shine! I'm truly honored by all the support
that both Marvel and the fans have given this title. It's exciting to
see that readers of all ages have been discovering this fun little
strip."

"I'm proud to be part of the creative team that is expanding the comic market and developing the next generation of comic fans," said Eliopoulos, the co-plotter, artist, and letterer. "As a father of twin boys, I know how hard it is to find age-appropriate comics for kids that
adults can enjoy as well, and we worked really hard to give everyone
something fun to read."

HOUSE OF M TRADE PAPERBACKS

Marvel Comics has announced its House of M trade paperbacks, collecting the main limited series and off-shoots.

Following is a roundup:

* House of M: Collects House of M #1-8. 200 pages, $23.99, in stores on Feb. 1.

* House of M: Fantastic Four/Iron Man: Collects House of M: Fantastic Four #1-3 and House of M: Iron Man #1-3. 144 pages, $13.99, in stores on Jan. 25.

* House of M: Wolverine: Collects Wolverine #33-35 and Secrets of the House of M. 128 pages, $13.99, in stores on Feb. 8.

THE BATMAN UPDATE

Kids' WB! has lined up a week of repeats of The Batman for the week of Oct. 17.

Following are the episodes:

"The Clayface of Tragedy" on Monday, Oct. 17; "The Cat, The Bat and The Ugly" on Tuesday, Oct. 18; "Riddled" on Wednesday, Oct. 19; "JTV" on Thursday, Oct. 20; "Batgirl Begins Part One" on Friday, Oct. 21; and "Batgirl Begins Part Two" on Saturday, Oct. 22.

SMALLVILLE UPDATE

The WB has released four more images from "Thirst," the Thursday, Oct. 27 episode of Smallville.

The images show Allison Mack as Chloe Sullivan and Carrie Fisher as Pauline Kahn, editor in chief at The Daily Planet.

Click on the images for larger and fuller images.

In other Smallville news, the "Mortal" episode on Thursday helped The WB to its highest Thursday ratings ever.

Smallville won its time period. It was No. 1 in men 18-34, No. 2 in adults 18-34, persons 12-34 and men 12-34 and was No. 3 in women 18-34 and women 12-34. Smallville improved its time period over the parallel week last season in all 18-34, 18-49 and 12-34 demos.

The show had 5.9 million viewers.

BRIEFLY

* Above is a first look at covers to Ant #5, Beyond Avalon #3, Common Foe #4, Down #3, Fell #3, Girls #9, Grounded #6, Necromancer #5, Noble Causes #18 and Walking Dead #27. Click on the thumbnails for larger images and look for Image Comics' solicitations for January soon here in The Continuum.

* Image Comics' Fell #1 has sold out.

* Coming Monday: TV news -- and much more!!!

COMICS CONTINUUM BACK ISSUES

In case you missed The Continuum's recent coverage, here are some links. Click on the date to get the day's full report.

* Monday, Oct. 3: Top Cow and WildStorm/Vertigo panels at Wizard World Boston and Heroic Publishing's January solicitations.